Apetit's Säkylä frozen foods plant's energy solution will be renewed – new energy solutions will reduce the plant's CO2 emissions by 80 per cent

The energy solution of Apetit's Säkylä frozen foods plant will be completely renewed. The new energy solution will increase the share of renewable energy used at the plant to about 70 per cent and significantly improve energy efficiency through heat recovery. Previously, Säkylä's energy solution has been based on fossil fuels.

“The new solution develops the operations of the factory in two ways. The recovery and utilisation of waste heat improves the energy efficiency of the plant by about a third. This and the replacement of the primary energy source will reduce the annual CO2 emissions of the plant by up to 80 per cent,” says Ari Kulmala, Production Director at Apetit.

The new energy solution is strongly based on renewable energy sources. The energy collected by heat recovery will be utilised for space heating by means of a heat pump plant to be built in connection with the frozen foods plant. In turn, the steam required for production will be produced partly with biogas and partly with liquefied natural gas (LNG). The biogas will be sourced from VSS Biopower, located near the frozen foods plant, which uses side streams of Apetit's harvest season production, among other things.

Positive climate impacts with new energy solutions

In its corporate responsibility program, Apetit is committed to reducing its CO2 emissions by 75 per cent by 2025. The biggest emission reductions are made in the Kantvik bioenergy plant, commissioned at the end of 2021, and the new energy solution to be implemented in Säkylä.

“As a result, we expect our emissions reduction target to be clearly met. If all goes to plan, the substantial part of the energy used by the Group's production plants will come from renewable sources in the near future. Already at this stage, we have reduced our emissions by more than 50 percent from the base year of our corporate responsibility program,” says Sanna Väisänen, Director, Communications and Sustainability at Apetit.

The energy solution of the Säkylä plant will be implemented through a partnership agreement. Adven Oy, which implements energy and water solutions, will invest in the implementation of the Säkylä energy system and will be responsible for its operation. Apetit is committed to a fixed-term service agreement with Adven for more than ten years. The new energy solution is scheduled to be implemented in the second quarter of 2023.

The bioenergy plant of the Kantvik vegetable oil milling plant was implemented as an own investment, operated by an external operator. The total value of the investment was approximately EUR 7 million.

All of Apetit's production plants already use electricity produced with wind power. Abandoning fossil fuels and the fixed electricity price will offset the Group's energy costs significantly in the next few years.

For further information, please contact:

Sanna Väisänen, Director, Corporate Communications and Sustainability, tel. +358 10 402 4041